The Military Philosophers

‘He is, as Proust was before him, the great chronicler of his culture in his time.’ Guardian

‘Comic in the most honoured sense ... as serious as it is funny.’ Spectator

‘Elegant, funny and moving.’ Guardian

‘A Dance to the Music of Time’ is universally acknowledged as one of the great works of English literature. Now in the first volume’s 75th anniversary year, this twelve-volume series is ready to delight and entrance a new generation of readers.

In this ninth volume, Nick Jenkins, now a Second World War captain, finds himself working in military liaison. When he receives the tragic news of the death of an old friend, Nick is confronted with the ever-present dichotomy between the way things are and the way things used to be.

Despite Widmerpool news of finding himself yet again engaged, this time to the notorious Pamela Flitton, the war’s toll is mounting and Nick, weary of life in uniform like the rest of his compatriots, is looking ahead to peacetime.

Praise for 'A Dance to the Music of Time’
‘A world as rich as Joyce's on the one hand and P. G. Wodehouse’s on the other.’ Guardian
‘One of the great novel-sequences in English Literature.’ William Boyd
‘One of the greatest pleasures of my reading life.’ Michael Palin
‘An epic, elegant masterpiece.’ Lauren Groff
‘A joyous experience.’ Roddy Doyle
‘An intricately wrought work of art.’ John Banville
‘The finest long comic novel that England has produced.’ Anthony Burgess
‘Mr Powell’s imagination is inexhaustible.’ Evelyn Waugh
‘One of English fiction’s few twentieth-century masterpieces.’ London Review of Books
‘There is no other novelist whose work gives so much or such consistent pleasure.’ Times Literary Supplement